Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-03-03


The sun was setting Up on the hillside
the windows of tho old stone house shone
gloriied
There were six of the Carstone children
under the big willow by the mill race that
afternoon. Names and ages respectively:
Shirley, IA; Tom, .; Percy, q; Brownie, 5;
Pet, 8, and Baby, the ruler of them all, not
quite months.
The old stone house stood upon hillside
It is there still, for that matter. 1t was near
a century old when our Carstones lived there
A great, cool, double porch extended across
its front Tho little windows were like the
loopholes of a fort. The walls were foot
thick. There were deep, sunny window Seats
where generations of kittens and Carstone
babies alike curled up and went to sleep.
The house hal belonged to the family al
most from the pioneer days. The grim, fort
like walls had echoed many and many year
to the sweetest music of all the earth-thc
laughter of children. Shirley Carstones
grandmother was born there, and her father
The family history, as far back as could be
known, had been an especially bright and
sunny one So much of innocent mirth had
sounded through those wide old rooms; SO
many years of gentle, tender, happy home
RSlooSeA
themselves seemed to have caught at length
some of the joy aud light 1t was fine,
strong blooded race, with never hereditary
ailment of mind or body, never an inherited
flaw of meanness or weakness. No Carstone
had ever shown himself coward or been
faithless to friend There was knightl-
ness, gentleness, a courage and purity in
the blood. 1t ran through the men and wo-
men alike.
Great orchards and fields surrounded the
stone house. At the foot of the hill a wide,
deep brook ran, heavily fringed with beeches
and shiny barked sycamore A stones throw
from the house was big water mill. 1t be-
longed with the estate, and it, too, was two
generations old. Higher up, the brook had
been partly turned off into a deep, clear mill
race. The water glided down and turned the
huge mill wheel as softly as if it was afraid
Of disturbing somebody's afternoon nap.
Ah those days were before the age of iron
and steam! .
Carstones had played. Tho hillsides were
covered still with forest. Shirley and the
little ones played i'll their day as the others
did before them. They darted in and out
among the trees like squirrels. They played
bopeep like spots of sunshine and shadow over
the mill wheel. They rode the colts bareback
and ran races with the calves and the shaggy
house dog. They whistled to the bob whites
and catbirds till the feathered creatures knew
not which was their own mate and which o
little rogue of a Carstone. ...
In the spring they dug the turkey pea, the
bloodroot and the fragrant smelling sassafras
In the fall they gathered the paw paw and
the hickory nut. In tho winter they set
traps for rabbits and built snow forts or sat
by the wide fireplace, where the blazing hick-
ory logs cracked, and guessed riddles When
they parted for the night they sang the songs
their mother taught them.
Not tree in the forest but they knew from
its leaf; not flower or shrub but they
named by its name; not bird or q wild
creature Of the woods but they knew its
haunts and its habits as r..
They had a menagerie of pets, these wood
land children. There was Sherry, the tame
crow. Sherry had whipped the poultry yard,
till every pullet ran and hid at the sight Of
him. He chased the hens from their nests
and devoured the eggs. At odd spells he made
a lunch off the buttons of old SANS coat. He
would alight upon the bare head Of that re-
spectacle colored gentleman at wholly unex-
pccted times and tangle his toes in tho digni-
fled gray wool. Then Sam howled with
wrath Then, too, every curly headed Car
stone lodged around the house, choking with
hidden laughter, while the old man made
complaint to their father 'ta ~
$50 de Lawd, if dat ar crow don't stop his
foolishness dar1l be a dead bird roun' dis
plantation, sho' An dem chillen a laffinr fit
to kill" ll 1e1 % laaI